Sermon: The Lord’s Anointed Fallen

Did you take a copy of God's word this morning? We're gonna turn open to the book of second Samuel. If you want to grab a pew Bible there in front of you, you can turn right open to page 2, 5 4 in the pew Bible 2, 5, 4 in this morning. Second Samuel chapter one, and we're looking at verses one through 16 this morning, second Samuel chapter one and verses one through 16 this morning.

And let's go ahead and pray before we open God's word together and hear from it this morning.

Our Father, we are thankful this morning and as we sit and as we stand in this place that you are a God who governs But not in some distant and far off and detached way, but that you are a God who is active in this world.

And even as we hear the cries of those children this morning that we're reminded that you knit them together in their mother's womb, you that as we sit in this place this morning that you sustain us, that our bodies would deteriorate and fall apart, that our souls would languish if it was not for your sustaining touch.

We pray that even this morning that as we sit and as we stand in this place, that you would once again pour out your sovereign grace upon our souls and we would find that when we hear this word red and that when we hear this word preach that our souls are enlivened and that we would know that we have heard from you our God who is at work in this world for the salvation and for the good of your people. Thank you for being our God

and work we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Second Samuel chapter one verses one through 16. This is the holy and errant sufficient word of God after the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag and on the third day behold the man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.

David said to him, where do you come from? And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel. And David said to him, how did it go? Tell me. And he answered, the people fled from the battle and also many of the people have fallen and are dead and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead. Then David said to the young man who told them, how do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? And the young man who told them said, by chance I happen

to be on Mount Gilboa. And there was Saul leaning on his spear and behold the chariots and the horsemen close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me and I answered, here I am. And he said to me, who are you? And I answered him, I am an amalekite. And he said to me, stand beside me and kill me for anguish has seized me and yet my life still lingers. So I stood beside him and killed him because I was sure that he could not live

after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the arm let that was on his arm and I have brought them here to my Lord. Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them and so did all the men who were with him and they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan, his son and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the young man who told him,

where do you come from? And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner. And Amalekite David said to him, how is it you were not afraid to put your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And David called one of the young men and said, go execute him. And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, your blood be on your head for your own mouth has testified against you saying I have killed the Lord's anointed though the grass withers

and the flower fades, the word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

This morning we began a new book of the Bible after we spent an extended time in a New Testament epistle thought, well it makes sense that we would go back to the Old Testament and we would pick up a narrative portion of scripture, but as we do so, uh, we're going into Second Samuel. As I was praying and thinking about it over these last months, I thought, well, this is the book that it just feels right and good, uh, to begin.

But as we do so in many ways, we're jumping right into the middle of a larger narrative. By beginning in Second Samuel, you could say, well, this really begins this narrative in First Samuel. Or you could even go back further than that and you could say, well, no, no, this narrative really begins in judges. Or you could even go further back than that and say, no, it begins before that. And so to understand this we have

to have a little bit of context. So let me do that both just as an overview for you and then also do a little bit as we flip back to first Samuel this morning. We could jump into a number of places to work our way from there. But let me just jump into where Joshua, if you will remember, Joshua was leading the people of God into the land of Canaan and into the Promised Land. And as he led the people into the promised land,

he was commissioned by God to destroy all of the false nations or all of the nations in the land that worshiped false gods. The reason being is that they were the holy people of God, the nation of Israel, and they were to go into this holy land and they were to establish a place where they were safe and where they were sound from any influence of the outside nations where they as a holy people in a holy land could worship their holy God.

They were to be holy as the Lord. God himself was holy. But of course you know the story that as Israel went into the land, they did not wipe out the nations that were in the land. And so over time the nation itself became more and more corrupted and began to suffer both morally and spiritually and began to worship the false gods of these other nations. So much so that in the time of the judges you could really say at a corporate level,

if not at an individual level, that the nation had abandoned the Lord. That refrain that happens over and over throughout the book of Judges that everyone did what was right in his own eyes, this kind of the reverberation that that happens throughout the book of judges that just kind of solidifies where the nation was at. And you'll remember that God will one time and again after the nation cries out to him that he will send a judge

or a delivered to help free them from these nations that have conquered them. And again, the people will return to doing what was right. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

They had forsaken God and they had forsaken God's kingdom. It was not God and it was not God's kingdom that was in the forefront of their eyes. Rather it was about self and it was about their own little petty kingdoms.

It's a good question, where are you and I at today? What's in the forefront of our mind, our eyes? Is it God and his kingdom or is it self? And our little petty kingdoms member, remember that the nation, when they're in the land, they're looking around at all of these foreign nations and they begin to covet what they see these foreign nations have. All of those nations have a king, we want a king.

And of course they begin crying out to God for their own king. But in doing so, once again they're forsaking God and they're forsaking his kingdom because God was their king God. In his grace, he grs what they request and he gives them a king. He is Samuel, that great prophet and that great judge go and anoint soul as king of Israel. And Saul looks the part he is every part king in that he is large and he is strong and he has a kind of persona about him,

a kind of presence. But what Saul possessed physically, he lacked spiritually. He was a man of physical stature, but he was a spiritual midget and it will have great implications for the nation of Israel. He will take his eyes off of God and off of his kingdom and he will be concerned with himself and with his own petty kingdom. And so what happens is as God calls and anoints a second future king of Israel, David Samuel was sent this judge

and this prophet is sent to the house of Jesse and there he will anoint David. As we are told there in the in first Samuel, he was a ruddy boy. He didn't have the physical stature. So much so that when Jesse calls all his sons in because one of them is going to receive this anointing from Samuel the prophet, he calls in all of his sons, but it's like there's one son that's forgotten. David's not there because he's too ruddy,

he's too small, he's forgotten. But what David lacked in physical stature he made up for in spiritual stature. In fact, in one Samuel and then later in Acts David will be referred to as the man after God's own heart.

And surely part of that and we will detailed as we go through the book of Second Samuel, is that David was a man after God's own heart and that God was before his eyes and God's kingdom was before his eyes.

What I want to do is see what we can learn in these opening verses in Second Samuel. That's kind of the background that gets us here and then we get to this, this announcement in verse one. It's quite an announcement after the death of soul that's monumental, the king of Israel has died. Now let's look back. I want you to see the context. I want you to understand why he has died and what's happened to him. So you gotta go back to one Samuel

and we gotta go back to chapter 28 and if you go back to chapter 28, we're gonna hear the voice of Samuel speaking to Saul in verses 18 and 19 through this witch of endure. Quite an interesting passage, but verses 18 through 19, this is what Samuel the prophet from the dead says through this witch to Saul the king because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore, the Lord has done this thing to you this day.

Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hands of the Philistines.

So here is Saul who is before this witch of indoor again, we don't have time to go into that this morning and she calls for Samuel from the dead and Samuel will prophesy, prophesied a soul that tomorrow you and your son shall be joining me when the Philistines defeat you in battle. And this is what has happened. We're on that tomorrow in two Samuel chapter one, they've just faced the Philistines and battle SA had disobeyed God

and God had told him to destroy the Amalekites, but Saul thought that he knew better. And so in this interesting passage he's told us a discipline for what? For your disobedience of God, you and your sons shall die tomorrow and now Saul has died. He and his sons and the nation of Israel has been defeated by their great enemy, the Philistines in the battle of Mount Gilboa, but the narrator goes on after the death of Saul,

when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites and you're meant to see the irony, Saul is struck down dead because he did not strike down the Amalekites as he was told to do. But here is David who is returning from striking down the Amalekites but all is not rosy for David Either David and his men have gone to strike down the Amalekites because there was a time where they were away from their H homes there in Ziklag

and while they were away, were away from their homes, the Amalekites had come and raided their homes and had destroyed and burnt their homes to the ground. They had then taken their wives and their children, all of David's wives, all of his children, all of his mighty men's wives and all of their children and had carried them off away from Ziklag.

David's mighty men are so upset and so upset at David for this and for Samuel in that book we were told that they were ready to stone David, but David strengthened by the Lord and encouraged by the Lord with his mighty men. He goes after these Amalekites and they overtake them as a narrator, says they strike them down and they recovered all of their wives, they recovered all of their children. That's the background. But what's happened in the scene is they've now returned

back to Ziklag. It's two days after they've returned but they have no homes. Their homes have been burnt to the ground and in the midst of all of this comes more bad news. Israel's been defeated. Jonathan has died and Saul has died. We're told man from Saul's camp Na, Malachi, which again is meant to be ironic, comes into David's camp with torn clothes and dirt on his head. He's showing that he's in grief, he's mourning

and he is traveled 80 miles to deliver this news to David. He announces the loss, the death, and David asks, how does this amalekite know that Saul is dead And the amalekite answers because he says that he helped to kill him. Now again, we have to flip back. She would say, well that makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't. If you read First Samuel should go back to First Samuel chapter 31.

It ends with quite a different story there verses three and four, let me read that. Verses three and four, the battle pressed hard against Saul and the archers found him and he was badly wounded by the archers and then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me. But his armor bearer would not for he feared greatly. Therefore, Saul took his own sword

and fell upon it. You have two contradictory stories here. The end of one Samuel, the beginning of second Samuel. You have one that is told by the narrator in one Samuel you have one that is told by the the amalekite in Second Samuel chapter one, which one is correct? It was one commentator said, when you have a narrator of God's word, give one story and you have a pagan, give another story, you go with a narrator. So why does the Amal lie?

Because he wanted David's favor. He thought David would reward him. Surely there would be a great reward. Wasn't Saul David's enemy? Wouldn't David reward him for putting to death his enemy? An enemy of my enemy is my friend,

but this liar made a miscalculation.

I wanna look at this passage in three ways this morning. Three things that we learn from it. First, want us to note that with eyes fixed on God and on God's kingdom, grief is the right response. When God's people are disciplined, grief is the right response. When God's people are disciplined grief,

notice that the writer wants us to know the depth of David's anguish. You get this report from the Amalekite and you think, okay, we've gotten the report from the Amalekite. Now what happens to the amalekite? But the narrator doesn't do that. It's like he stops the story, he puts the amalekite on hold and he pushes him to the background and he centers us upon us upon something that he wants us to focus upon something that is much more important.

He wants us to focus on David's grief. Look at how he piles up the words. Verse 12, they mourned and they wept and they fasted and not just for a few minutes but until evening. Now we might think, of course David wept and he mourned and he fasted. This was his good friend Jonathan. They were close friends. They they loved one another. He mourned and he fasted and he wept for him. But it's not just for him. No. The narrator says that he mourned and he wept

and he fasted for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel and for Jonathan and for soul.

His eyes are fixed on God and his kingdom. So he grieved quote for the people of the Lord. Now this is why I want you to remember David and his mighty men have just lost their homes. They've just been burnt to the ground. They still have reason to mourn their own circumstances. They could have easily consumed with their own loss, with their own trial. Enough has already come their way, but here was a band of men and here was a future king that had their eyes set upon God

and upon his kingdom they're not self-consumed

or a God and kingdom consumed. And so they grieved when God's people received discipline or judgment.

Can't help but think of the one that David points forward to that he is, but a shadow and a type of the Lord Jesus when he is sitting there over the city of Jerusalem and as he looks upon it, as it is the capital city, the very heartbeat of the people of God and he's looking out upon it and he knows that the discipline and the judgment of the Lord is getting ready to descend upon the city. And what does he do? He weeps over it.

He struck with grief and he says like a, like a mother hyn. I wish I could just bring them underneath my wings as chicks.

Second, note that with eyes fixed on God and on his kingdom means God's people are my people. When our eyes are fixed on God and on his kingdom, it means his people are my people. It's always impressed me about David. It seems to be where his mind is at and where his eyes are fixed or upon God and upon his people from these earliest of days. He's a young man. He's not a seasoned, grizzled old saint with a flowing beard

that has learned this by experience. He's a young man and yet he saw God's people as his people.

Think about Saul. Saul saw David as an enemy, but David did not see Saul as an enemy.

This was the miscalculation of that amalekite ingratiate. He didn't know that David had kingdom eyes.

Saul, despite everything that David did for Saul, Saul saw him as an enemy. David would play music at night just to calm Saul's soul. He went out on that battlefield and he confronted that that giant of a man and he feed him in battle and saved the nation. That soul was reigning over as king and instead of love, soul just returned hate. He threw spears at David's head. He chased him around the wilderness seeking to put him to death.

He chased him into caves. He chased him away from everything that he knew and that he loved. He even had to go to his enemies and act like an insane man just so he had a place to lay his head. He was truly a suffering servant and all because this man hated him.

Yet David didn't return what he received. Why? Because God was fixed before his eyes and God's kingdom was fixed before his eyes

and he knew that God's people are my people.

Paul says this in the New Testament, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you. Those are God's people. So those are my people.

We not only grieve with them, we love them, we honor them. We're kind to them

and I'm training deacons for our diaconate. I always take them through this imagery. Our book of church order in the Presbyterian Church of America says it so beautifully. It says that the diaconate, the deacons, they are ordained to a ministry of service, sympathy and service. Sympathy and service. I love that. What is it that they're to do? They are to extend sympathy and service in the congregation and they're to model it before the congregation.

Why? Because this is what Christians are supposed to look like. Why? Because this is what Christ looked like and looks like. He extends sympathy and service.

So much so that our book of church order says that if there are no men that are eligible to be ordained as deacons, that that duty of sympathy and service, it devolves upon the elders. The elders are to extend sympathy and service. Why? Because this is what Christ has done and this is what Christ does.

David didn't return what he received, had God before his eyes. He had the kingdom before his eyes. This is kingdom stuff.

The true king of the true kingdom was marked and is marked by this and so are his people. You remember when Saul goes into that cave in first Samuel chapter 24, and he goes into that cave to relieve himself. He he's in that country because he is seeking David's death and he goes into that cave and you remember David's, David's hiding in that cave. Here's the providence of God. The man seeking to kill me is in his most vulnerable state

right in front of me. Surely he's to be put to death and David's mighty men are egging him on. This is, this is it. God has put him in your hands, but David doesn't see it like that. He's kingdom eyes. He refuses to strike down the Lord's anointed soul is God's, which means he's not David's enemy.

You don't have brothers and sisters in Christ that are enemies.

You don't have people in the church counted among the people of God that are your enemies.

There's a lot of injustice. There's a lot of unkindness, there's a lot of self-consumed envy. There's a lot of hatred that happens among God's people.

It's the mature, it's the mature that look with kingdom eyes

and just continue to love.

Isn't it fascinating Out of everything that Jesus could have said about his disciples, you'll be known out of everything,

how is it that the world will know you? How, how and of everything he could have said, he said they will know you by your love for one another.

This example of Christ, I think on the night before his betrayal, he, he goes around and each of those disciples that sit there, he he knows that they're going to betray him the very next day. That every single one of them are going to abandon them and he washes their feet

after his resurrection. He will meet Peter there on the beach who's denied him three times when he is in the greatest moment of his anguish and suffering. And he desperately from a human perspective, needs his friends with him. And Peter denies him. You know, meet him on that beach and just extend love.

It's not a slight thing that Jesus says of his disciples. They will know you by your love for one another.

We love the people of God no matter whether they return it in kind or not. That's a kingdom mindset. It's having kingdom eyes. It's seen more than just what is before us. It's having more in view than my petty little kingdom. It's understanding that there's a greater narrative here. There's a greater story here that I'm, I'm participating in and you look at it in that greater grander story.

David looked like this and saw like this, the world's about so much more than me. And Paul details what marks a Christian. Romans 12, he says this, he says, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.

Finally let us know that with eyes fixed on God and his kingdom, we know God's judgment is certain. We know God's judgment is certain

The am Malachi thought he could veil his lie, but God has never mocked and so through David, God executes judgment upon him. I truly think this is how David could face all of this persecution at the hands of soul is that he had this kind of kingdom mindset and this kind of kingdom gaze and look at God. And so he knew this. He knew that God's judgment is certain and there's great rest in that.

And you see this even with this am Malachi to is confessing to this sin that he says that he is committed and he thinks he is shrouding it and deception. And here is God's judgment that has worked out. God is never deceived,

He is never mocked.

He executes judgment.

Could one argue that this man was condemned for the wrong thing? Sure, he didn't actually kill Saul, but as David said to him, your mouth has testified against you saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed. In fact, David even grants the man a second chance of verse 14. How is it that you were not afraid to put your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? He asked him. The question also makes it very clear that the Amalekite was not a newcomer

among the people of Israel. He said earlier in the passage that he had escaped from the camp of Israel, meaning that he was there with Israel at the battle. He says in verse 13 that his father was an amalekite. Sojourner mean that his father lived and he lived with Israelite people most likely as a servant or of an Israelite family or an Israelite man. And so he would've known the law of God. He would've known that the anointed

of God was not to be touched. But he had no problem flaunting God's law for personal gain. And so he lies. He lied to gain just like Ananias and safari will go before the apostles and before the church and they will lie to gain. And so it was true of them. So it is true of him.

But all of that deception, it doesn't stay in shadows and God always executes his judgment. Jesus says in Luke 12, there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden, that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. And what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. All comes delight.

He says in Matthew 1236, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. We receive justice.

If our eyes are fixed on God and on his kingdom. We know his judgment is certain and we live in light of it. There's a healthy fear that you and I are to have of God.

He hears all and he knows all.

I think this is actually what allowed David

to continue to labor and to live despite all of this hatred that's aimed at him. All of these murder threats, all of these spears thrown at his head, all of this injury that's offered to his person, all of the slander and all of these lies that are being said about him, it's this, is that he knows God sees all things, that God knows all things and that God will judge all things.

When I was a freshman in high school, uh, there was a day a week that we were in English class and we were going to have a test at the end of that week. And earlier in that week, we had a substitute teacher and I was sitting in the back of the room in that early part of the week, the day we had the substitute teacher and there were four of us in the back of the room. And one of them began to plot and come up with a plan about how one

of us could distract the substitute teacher while another went up and stole the test we were gonna take later that week from her file on her desk. And we joked about it and we laughed about it and eventually two of them decided to do it. And so one distracted and one stole the test and they brought it back to the chair. And I never saw the test, but I had laughed and joked about it in the back of the room. And throughout the week I participated by laughing

and bragging about the fact that we applauded it on the day of the test. The English teacher passed out the test, the regular English teacher. We took the test, we turned the test back in. And then after she'd taken all the tests, she stood in front of the class and she pronounced to all of us that she knew that people in this class had conspired to seal, steal that test.

She then went on to say that none of us would ever pass her te her class. None of us would ever be a member of the National Honor Society and every teacher in the school would know our reputation and we would never have the respect of anybody in the school.

And then she said words that sent shivers up and down my spine. She said, you cheaters, let me tell you, we teachers have ways. We have ways of knowing. Now, I didn't know what those ways were, but I'll tell you, for the rest of high school, those words went through my mind. I had fear. They have ways of knowing.

God's ways are not so hidden. He knows all.

He sees all nothing shrouded and he always brings delight. What is supposedly hidden in the darkness. David understood this.

The amalekite didn't.

It's that kingdom mindset.

It allows David to withstand all of those threats. That soul LOBs his way.

It's with that mindset that God is omniscient, that he is all knowing, that he's all seen, that he that provides so much comfort for the Christian that you can be persecuted and you can be maligned and you can be missed and you can be stabbed in the back and you can be gossiped about and you can be slandered and you can miss out on this privilege or that blessing at work or in the workplace or in your family or in school because you are a Christian.

And all of that can just slide off your back like water on the back of a duck because you know,

he sees and he knows

and he always, always, always sets things right. He brings his judgment to bear.

David will say as the psalmists, Psalm 34, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry.

David knows the true king and he knows he's not it.

It's that wonderful psalm where David will talk about the fact that when he was in sin that he says his bones were wasting away within him. It was like they were melting within him because the eye of God was appointed me. He couldn't keep it hidden. He he knows he's exposed before the eyes of God and it felt like his bones were just deteriorating and melting within him and becoming like Plato. And he was just sinking in upon himself.

He says, until I decided to go into the sanctuary of the Lord, that is to draw near to God.

Ah. And as he drew near to God, he found this king to be a refuge in a fortress, in a mighty tower and a safe and hiding place for him.

He knows he's not the answer. He's not the king. He entrusted himself to another king

David. Throughout this book we're going to see he is a type of the king to come. You know, Jesus will quote it in Psalm one 10 where he speaks of David. David knowing him. You know, he says, how is it that the Lord said to my Lord, you shall sit up my right hand. How is it that David could call somebody his Lord? Because he knew that he wasn't the king.

He knew he wasn't ultimately the anointed one. He knew that Christ to come was

and he drew near to him.

In fact, this entire account gives us a glimpse of the true anointed of God who men should have never harmed. God gives the nation sa and then David and each will fail in their own ways. But the true king of God's people, he never fails. He's a king who just keeps on pursuing righteousness and truth and peace and goodness and love and ex dispenses, mercy and grace over and over to his people. He's a king who grieves for his people so much

to the point that he will willingly come and suffer for them, that he will willingly come and die for them. That's how much he is grieved for his people. A king who so loves his people, that when they were enemies of his, when they were committing sins and steeped in sin and had no desire for him and by their every action or seeking to unseat him from his throne, that he loves them and dies for them to bring them to himself so

that they might not just be reconciled to him, but so that they might be inheritors of his kingdom

and not just lovers of them but conquers for them

where he is executing justice upon all of not just his enemies but our enemies and laying them as a footstool beneath his feet.

That's the king. And David knows that king,

king that he worships a truly anointed one that he ultimately pointed to. And when you and I have eyes for God in his kingdom, that is the one we find ourselves pointed to.

King of kings, Lord of lords, we pray for us.

Our Father, we thank you for so great a king in Christ Jesus. We're thankful for the saints that have come before us, so many who have lived righteous lives, but we are thankful most of all for that one that came and lived a perfectly righteous life.

They're thankful for that great man of faith, that great man of righteousness and truth that now reigns forevermore.

And oh, may it be true of every heart in this room that we are all kneeled before his throne, knowing his comfort, his truth, his peace forevermore. And we pray all of this in the strong name of that King of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus the Christ. Amen. The.